Thieving little Britons?

More than three quarters of workers have stolen from their current or previous places of work, according to new research. Anonymous online research commissioned by private investigators Allied Detectives found that over £432m of company goods, including laptops, confidential personal data, and TVs are stolen in the UK each year.

The poll found that 78% of the participants had stolen from their place of work at some point in their lives. This means that with individuals admitting to stealing, on average, more than £920 worth of items throughout their careers, theft at work costs the economy nearly £432m each year. The research stipulated that office stationary did not count, and the average was pushed up by many claiming that they have stolen more than £5000 worth of goods.

Those who denied pilfering from work however are certainly no angels, as 57% of people who haven’t yet stolen from a place of work said that they would if they thought that they could get away with it.

Jorge Salgado-Reyes, who commissioned the research, said: “In my line of work, you get used to shocking stories and facts, but these stats make for pretty scary reading. Companies are doing little to stop thefts of these kinds, with very few having deterrents such as monitored CCTV or robust asset management systems in place.

“It just goes to show that in today’s Britain, you really don’t know who you can trust.”

Amongst the stolen items anonymously detailed in the comprehensive survey were large sums of cash, alcohol, furniture, computer equipment and even one boss’s desk. One respondent even claimed to have stolen an office pet.

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[…] Retail crime is an expensive problem for company’s according to a new report by the British Chambers of Commerce which puts the annual cost of crime against business at £12.6 billion – an increase of 20 per cent since its previous survey in 2004. 3,900 businesses were surveyed nationwide and they found that 59 per cent had experienced at least one crime in the previous 12 months. This survey reflect Salgado’s own survey published as Thieving Little Britains. […]